Review Summary

From the top-grossing director in Korea, Kang Je-gyu ("Shiri"), comes an Asian answer to Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan," in which the Korean War of 1950-53 serves as a background to family melodrama. Forced to join the South Korean Army when the North unexpectedly invades, brothers Jin-tae (Jang Dong-gun) and Jin-seok (Won Bin) find themselves caught up in a conflict far more ambiguous than that depicted in Mr. Spielberg's film, one in which neither side has the moral upper hand and faceless authority invariably trumps over individual aspirations. It's a film that will mean more within the culture that produced it than outside, but it does offer Western viewers rare access to another country's innermost anxieties and contradictions, and as such is a fascinating document. — Dave Kehr